I love the implausibility in the set-up of THE ONE ARMED SWORDSMEN, yet another 'one armed' movie starring Jimmy Wang Yu (and fellow Shaw Brothers star David Chiang, too, for good measure!). You see, in this film there are no less than FOUR one-armed fighters who just so happen to be living and congregating around some small village in rural China. Now, what are the chances of that? The film itself is an elaborate and old-fashioned romp that attempts to recapture some of the old Shaw magic, although given that it was made on a lower budget in Taiwan, it's not quite the same. Wang Yu seems to have made a career of playing one-armed guys although his character in this one is fairly ordinary and outshone by the other principal actors: David Chiang as a cheeky and enigmatic rival, and Lo Lieh as a man hiding secrets.The action isn't quite as plentiful as you'd expect from a Wang Yu film, although the bits that do take place are well staged (the cliff top fight in silhouette is a nice touch). The story begins with a chest full of costume jewellery being attacked by bandits and the guards massacred; following this, there's an outlandish moment in which a teacher is murdered by some bizarre wooden men. The plot then consolidates into a whodunit with the requisite twists and turns, although the identity of the murderer isn't tough to guess. There are not one but two interludes in restaurants in which characters attempting to wine and dine are set upon by thugs, dressed as cave men in one inexplicable touch. The choreography is basic but enlivened by brief blood-spraying gore. The buddy humour between Wang Yu and Chiang sees it through, and the western-style music adds to the fun.

Our story begins with a one-armed masked man making short work of a group of martial artists before making like horse s--- and hitting the dusty trail. The local villagers begin to speculate as to just WHO this mysterious, one-armed bandit might be. Coincidentally, there happen to be about half a dozen suspects in the vicinity. That's right: almost every other character in THE ONE-ARMED SWORDSMEN has a missing limb. Suspicion falls on both Li (David Chiang) and Fang (Wang Yu), who each suspect the other. When a group of "barbarians" using huge spiked clubs attack the pair in a tavern, our heroes manage to dispense with them between sips of tea from teapots- which they use to toast one another both during and AFTER the fight. And, lest you think he's been forgotten in the mayhem, Lo Lieh as yet ANOTHER one-armed swordsman plays a pivotal role at the end (and he has an unsurprising surprise up his sleeve). There's a scene early in the movie involving some wooden men that come to life; it's the kind of thing we've come to expect from a Wang Yu-directed movie (though co-director David Chiang might've had a say in it as well). A fun but minor romp.

I rented a copy of this one from Netflix -- big mistake. The DVD version titled "The One-Armed Swordsmen" was produced by madmen who thought that the fighting sequences would be appreciated better pasted all together in one big chapter than as part of a consistent, sequential story. Some of the story was left in separate chapters, which you can select from the main menu, but the DVD is still a mess. Don't rent or buy it. Not that there was anything wonderful about the original story, an absurdly complicated piece of nonsense. Much as I liked seeing Wang Yu in his prime again after all these years, this one is an utter waste of time. I've had dish detergents that made a better film than this. What the chopped-up DVD version shows us is that no matter how silly a Chinese script may be, you have to see some sort of story to care about how the fighting sequences turn out.But "The One-Armed Swordsmen" does offer you do the chance to see both Wang and Shaw Brothers stalwart Lo Lieh beating up smirking pretty boy David Chiang -- it's always a pleasure to see that happen. Lo plays a sort of second-string villain here, and serves as a prime example of why some people really need orthodontists. he film is also graced by the participation of Taiwanese actor Chang Yi as the magistrate. Another comment above mentions the obligatory fight-in-the-inn scene (there are two, in fact) where Wang and Chiang are attacked by a pack of comical barbarians using what look like cavemen weapons, making Bruce Lee noises while they fight. None of this makes any sense, but that's okay if you're not expecting any clarity or common sense. It was fun to watch anyway.Another peculiarity of this production is that there are no significant women characters. There are a couple of female roles, but they play no serious role in the action or the plot.If you can find a copy of the original Shaw Brothers One-Armed Swordsman movie, the one which explains why he has only the one arm and why he uses a broken sword, go for it.

Although a kung fu classic, this film lacks a certain grace in its fight sequences. This might be partly due to the fact that every single character seems to have one arm. Indeed a new DVD release includes an extra previously cut fight scene which raises the number of one armed swordsmen to 7, effortlessly setting a new standard for the one armed genre.The real pleasure of this film is its labyrinthine plot. This film employs a Chinese box structure, steadily expanding its scope and the importance of the action. In layman's terms, this film has the two most improbable plot twists of any kung fu movie i have ever seen. Watch and shake your head in disbelief, then laugh, then watch it again.